USC's Galippo apologizes for saying Notre Dame 'quit' at end of game

USC linebacker Chris Galippo has apologized for saying Notre Dame "quit" and the end of their game Saturday.

"If I offended anyone with my postgame comments Saturday, I do apologize," Galippo posted on his Twitter account. "I have great respect for their players and their program.

He then added: "It was a great game by both sides. Time to focus on Stanford!!!"

Southern Cal got the ball with 6:43 left and 14-point lead and handed the ball to Curtis McNeal on 10 consecutive running play. Notre Dame did not call any of their remaining timeouts and let the clock expire.

In the aftermath of the game Saturday night, Galippo implied that the Irish gave up.

"At the end there, when they didn't call those timeouts, they just quit," Galippo said. "And that's what Notre Dame football's about. They're not anything like USC."

"On behalf of our football program, I apologize for Chris Galippo's statements after the game. I've addressed this with Chris and he is remorseful," Kiffin said. "I also called coach Kelly to personally apologize. As I said to the media immediately after the game, I thought Notre Dame played extremely hard throughout the game. It was another classic rivalry game and we feel fortunate to have won."

The statements came after Trojans quarterback Matt Barkley agreed with Galippo's comments.

"I would agree with that," Barkley said in an interview on 710 ESPN. "I was shocked that they didn't use the timeouts because we got on the field with … about seven minutes left, and I thought they were planning on stopping us and saving their timeouts for the end when they had the ball. …

"It seemed from our sideline and our perspective that they did give up. It seemed uncharacteristic of Notre Dame. I wouldn't have wanted to have been on that sideline."

It was rough night for the Irish, which hosted the Trojans in a night game for the first time in the series. They were also debuting their new gold helmets and hosted several important recruits, including former USC commitment Arik Armstead.

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly chose not to get into the debate about the final minutes.

"I don't know if that's the case," Kelly said. "To the victors go the spoils. I think we probably would have said the same thing last year. Again, how we evaluate our players, we didn't play the kind of football we wanted to play."

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